Part of the magic of travel for me is the historical events and life stories of the areas I visit. Aboard Viking Cruises´ 930-passenger Jupiter, we crossed the Baltic Sea from Scandinavia to Rostock, on Germany´s Baltic coast, and popul
Founded in the early 12th century, this city of nearly 249,000 in the eastern German state of Saxony (and hour from Leipzig and just 50 minutes from Dresden) offers a mix of industrial heritage, modern art, and natural beauty. Dubb
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In the 1920s and 30s, Germany´s capital was a major destination for homo-inclined visitors, as one of the world's first cities to become socially accepting of gays and lesbians. Several LGBTQ social movements and institutions were foun
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In 1919, in the immediate wake of the devastation wrought by World War I, an architect named Walter Gropius, one of the pioneering maestros of modern architecture, founded an art school that combined fine arts with cra
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From September 17 to October 3, the legendary celebration of German beer, cuisine, and culture in Bavaria's capital is returning after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unsprprisingly, it's necessary to make your
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Germany’s capital is already a super-fun place to visit. And you can make it extra fun by tooling around the city in a very special kind of car. An East German company produced more than three million Trabants - cheap, ubiquitous little two-
Deutschland is famously a veritable hotbed of that beloved European tradition of Christmas markets, and its capital is practically ground zero, with perhaps the most Christkindlmärkte of any German city, large and small scattered throug
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Especially as the weather starts warming up again, I find I have a soft spot for northern Germany’s most vibrant city. As a European looking for a stimulating city break, I consider Hamburg a sweet spot for quenching the thirst not jus
Booking a stateroom for an Elbe River cruise excursion during a colorful October in Germany made my seasonal travels a complete success. The Elbe River extends through a part of Germany that I had yet to explore with Viking River Cruises. I'd prev
Frankfurt am Main is packed with excellent history, dining, culture, shopping, nightlife, and more. But there's also plenty to appeal to nature lovers, as well. The city is famous for its delightful gardens and parks, one of the most beautiful and l
With a population of around 10,000, Rüdesheim am Rhein is a winemaking town in the fabled Rheingau scenic and wine region, and less than an hour's drive from Frankfurt. Our river-cruise ship docked here where a land train - which Germans call by t
Read more…Visiting the castles of Germany is a wonderful experience for children. And of course many adults love it at least as much! You'll feel like you've stepped into a magical fairy tale. There are a number of scenic driving routes which will allow you
Read more…As people start to think about fun getaways for the summer, it's worth noting that a number of key spots all across Europe draw multicultural people and gays/lesbians to unwind, let their hair down, and party their butts off, whether they're backpac
Read more…...from Innsbruck, Austria to Frankfurt. If you'd like to help, please reply not here but at this link to our Ask A Travel Pro forum.
Danke sehr!
Autumn travel is already on the horizon! When you read about spectacular autumn foliage and leaf-peeping, the vast majority of the attention gets focused on places like the northerly regions of the USA. But many Europeans can tell you that large par
Munich is the third largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg, with a population of 1.5 million with the Munich Metropolitan Region home to more than 6 million inhabitants.
It is considered the capital city of the southern region of Germany,
Originating as a Slavic settlement in the Dark Ages, for more than three centuries, the town, the small city of Meissen (pop. 30,000), straddling the Elbe River of Saxony, had something of an outsize reputation as site of key events in Teuton
Some love to follow their hearts when travelling, others love to follow their stomachs and taste buds. And if you want to have something to tell people when they ask the – otherwise, legit – question of how was the food, you should consider some of
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It's still winter, of course, and we've been reading about (and a lucky some of us even participating in) the frosty fun for which Europe's most extensive mountain range system is famous. But summer is coming, too, and it's not too early to consider
